I was born and raised in a small upcountry city in Brazil called Barbacena, lived in Hawaii, Belo Horizonte and São Paulo for over ten years until finally land in Toronto for my MBA.

My passions include gadgets and tech, sports – huge fan of soccer, basketball and football – and entrepreneurship. I don’t need cars, I like to ride my bike and have fun in the city.

Until this very present day, I never refused a chance to meet great people, so feel free to connect on social networks or send me an email hello@rodpaolucci.com to invite me for a coffee 🙂

My experiences:

Samba Tech was my first entrepreneurial experience and has played a crucial role in my career. I joined the founding team when I was 18 years and helped build and grow the business from a mobile-game startup until we pivoted it into an online video platform. I had opportunity to raise funding at a time that VC investments were not popular in Brazil and lead Marketing and Sales efforts in Brazil, later expanding to LatAm countries. Samba Tech was selected by Fast Company among the most innovative companies in LatAm and is recognized in Brazil as a leading in the startup movement in the region.

In 2012 Samba Tech spun off SambaAds (later renamed YContent), the first online video advertising network in Brazil and I was founder and CEO of this startup. The company raised over $3 million from investors based out of Brazil, Israel, Germany and US to become the leading video distribution platform in Brazil, reaching 52 million unique users per month and streaming 300 million recommendations in over 500 publishing sites.

In 2017 YContent was acquired by Predicta, a leading digital advertising player owned by Grupo RBS, a top 5 media player in Brazil.

MBA no Canadá: Where I write about my MBA experience and living in Toronto.